There are still nine days until the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs play in Super Bowl LIX so that means it was time for First Take to ease into the weekend by litigating if Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow is elite or not. On its face this doesn't seem like particularly fertile ground for back-and-forth oration but Chris Canty was up to the task of boldly saying no when most people say yes.
"He's not an elite quarterback," Canty said. "We've got to get out of this thing where we want to anoint everybody an elite quarterback. I'm just saying we can't give the runner-up to the runner-up to the runner-up elite quarterback status. There ain't but three spots on the medal stand. When we start talking about the podium it's a gold medal spot, it's a silver medal spot and it's a broze medal spot. The fourth-place guy don't get an acknowledgment."
"[Joe Burrow] is not an elite quarterback." —@ChrisCanty99 😳 pic.twitter.com/EnXJNiyPwK
— First Take (@FirstTake) January 31, 2025
Canty pointed out that Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson have done more in the NFL than Burrow. It might be worth pointing out that two of those guys have never made it to a Super Bowl but forget it, Canty was rolling.
"Joe Burrow's claim to fame is, once upon a time four years ago, beat Patrick Mahomes in a playoff game on his way to losing the Super Bowl. I'm sorry, that doesn't give you elite status."
Setting aside the fact that no one should really care who is granted this mythical "elite" status, when people are made to care, they all have different metrics. Someone could just as easily envision a Mount Rushmore as they could a medal stand. It's all meaningless and open to interpretation.
Also, Burrow's claim to fame is that he's an awesome NFL quarterback and has been since he entered the NFL. It's a weird thing to do to turn the best thing he's ever done in his career, especially because there's no need to go back four years on Burrow, who had a tremendous season in 2024 only to be let down by his defense.
As always, know if someone attempts to draw you into a conversation about the eliteness of an NFL quarterback, be prepared to get into a whole thing and leave frustrated.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Chris Canty Explains Why Joe Burrow is Not an Elite Quarterback.
